1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to endoscopes, and more particularly to an endoscope coupler device for coupling an endoscope to a camera.
2. Background Information
An endoscope may include an elongated section that contains an imaging fiber surrounded by a bundle of illuminating fibers. The physician advances the elongated section within a body until the distal end is proximate a region of interest. Then, illuminating light introduced at the proximal end propagates along the illuminating fibers to illuminate the region of interest, with reflected light propagating back along the imaging fiber for viewing.
A connection hub attached to the proximal end interfaces the optical fibers to supporting components, coupling a separate source of illuminating light to the illuminating fibers and an eyepiece to the imaging fiber. The eyepiece attaches to the connection hub as an interface between the imaging fiber and the user's eye. It provides a visually discernible image of the region of interest, and the user simply looks into the eyepiece with one eye to view the imge.
One such endoscope is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,243 to Lowery at al. entitled "Endoscope Having A Reuseable Eyepiece And A Disposable Distal Section." An objective lens and a plano lens mounted within the eyepiece combine to present the image at a viewing port, and the user rotates the eyepiece housing slightly to bring the image into focus.
However, it may be desirable to record the image with such imaging equipment as a video camera. This is sometimes accomplished by utilizing a special adapter having one end that clamps onto the eyepiece over the viewing port and another end that screws onto a remote video camera head. Lenses within the adapter pass the image to the plane of a camera sensor chip within the camera head and this adapts the eyepiece to the camera head.
Although such an adapter may be effective in many respects, there are certain problems that need to be overcome. For example, using the combination of an eyepiece and an adapter involves the relative expense and complexity of two separate devices. This may include interrelated focusing adjustments of two lens systems, an undesirably large adapter size for a desired image size, and extra time and inconvenience for mounting and use. In addition, the surface reflections and limited numerical aperture of multiple optical elements decrease light intensity.
Consequently, it is desirable to have a new and improved endoscope coupler device that alleviates these concerns. In this regard, it is particularly desirable to have the coupler device produce an image of greater intensity and sufficient size to cover a substantial portion of a conventional camera sensor chip.